


One Short Sleep

by Mertiya



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Awkward Flirting, Awkwardness, Billy is a total mess, Gen, Pre-Slash, Reunions, Teddy is not much better, sudden removal of age gap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-02 06:11:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18805336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mertiya/pseuds/Mertiya
Summary: One minute, Billy Kaplan was babysitting Mrs. Altman's cute kid; the next he's being hugged by a totally hot and totally naked stranger and he has no idea what just happened.





	One Short Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> I've been dying to pull Young Avengers into the MCU for ages, and I realized my opportunity when Cassie Lang age 15 showed up in Endgame, so here, have this weird little thing where Billy and Teddy are, naturally, Super Awkward.

_"One short sleep past, we wake eternally_   
_And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die."_

\-- "Death Be Not Proud", by John Dunne

When Billy Kaplan thought about dying—which was probably a lot, really, for a sixteen-year-old kid whose worst problems ought to be getting his homework in on time—he usually imagined something like a traffic accident or an airplane crash. Or, like, maybe getting really unlucky when inevitably aliens invaded Manhattan again or something. Anyway, he expected to have some warning, but, as it turned out, the first time he died, he didn’t even realize it had happened. Oh, sure, he knew there was _something_ going on again—you couldn’t be as much of a superhero-obsessed fanboy as Billy was without knowing when the giant battles were going on. Everyone was kind of nervous, but Billy was getting paid to babysit again, and he was honestly more worried about Teddy, like, falling out a window or something, even though the kid was eleven and actually really easy to take care of. The Avengers had saved the day before, and they’d do it again. In fact, Billy was in the bathroom just washing up and vaguely daydreaming about becoming a superhero himself when it happened.

                  He had a weird moment where he was staring at his reflection and seemed to see lines of dust drifting up and away from his face, like he’d accidentally stumbled into a surrealist painting. There was a moment of weird, faraway pain, and then he was shaking his head and wincing over the sink. “Ow. What the fuck,” he muttered. It felt as if he’d blacked out for a moment; his vision was blurry, and his ears were ringing. The minute he realized that what he was hearing was actually the sound of the shower going, it shut off.

                  Billy turned around in confusion, just in time to see the shower curtain pulled back and somebody step out. Billy’s jaw dropped immediately, because a) what the fuck, how? and b) _alert alert Super Hot Guy alarm_. They stared at each other. Super Hot Guy was naked and, like, six inches taller than scrawny Billy, and he had amazing bright blue eyes and was getting out of Teddy’s apartment’s shower where they shouldn’t have been anyone, which meant he was an intruder, and _had Billy mentioned he was naked?_ And there wasn’t a single inch of him that wasn’t amazing. Billy made a terrified noise as he realized he had no idea what was going on, and he was also hard as hell.

                  “Billy?” breathed the angelic stranger. “Oh my god.” And Billy yelped in horror as Weird Hot Guy took half a step across the bathroom and pulled him into a bone-cracking and very naked—it really could not be overstated how naked Shower Guy was—hug.

                  “Naked!” Billy squeaked, voice cracking, and then tried, “Who are you and what are you doing in the Altmans’ apartment? I’ll—I’ll call the police.” How exactly would he call the police? He was trapped in a wet _and very naked_ embrace; the hottest guy he had ever seen had apparently invaded the apartment where he was supposed to be babysitting and was naked and holding him and holy fuck? nuzzling his hair? What was going _on_? Billy’s sense of honor and duty and being a good babysitter warred with his overactive teenage libido, and were just barely starting to win out when Hot Naked Guy pulled him back at arms’ length and said, “You haven’t changed at all. Oh my god.”

                  “I have a taser!” Billy blurted, even though he didn’t, actually, and Strange Shower Naked Dude probably knew that, because his hands had been just _all over_ , a fact which Billy’s lizard brain was still swooning over.

                  “Billy,” Blue Eyes said softly. “Billy, it’s me. It’s Teddy. This is my apartment.”

                  Billy had one awful moment of wondering whether he’d been in a coma for, like, ten years or whatever, and then he realized that was stupid and absurd and choked out a laugh. “Nice try,” he said. “Teddy is a kid. He’s eleven. He’s shorter than I am.”

                  “Billy—you—” Fake Teddy sat down on the edge of the tub and covered his face with his hands. “You’re dead. You’ve been dead for five years. And now apparently I’m going crazy.”

                  There was a frantic knock on the bathroom door. Oh, god, was Mrs. Altman back? Was Teddy dead? There was a raving lunatic in his bathroom, and Billy didn’t _actually_ have a taser, but he could go call 911, couldn’t he? That sounded like it was a vaguely solid idea.

                  Keeping a close eye on Naked Not-Teddy, Billy backed over to the door and opened it, stepping out backwards and immediately colliding with Mrs. Altman, whose hand was raised to knock again. She shrieked and jumped backwards.

                  “Is Teddy okay?” Billy gabbled. “I’m sorry, I was literally just in the bathroom for like two minutes, but I think I blacked out or something and there’s this weird guy who said he was Teddy, and he’s naked, and maybe we should call the police? And is Teddy okay?”

                  Mrs. Altman didn’t seem to have actually processed anything he was saying; she was just standing there with her mouth open and one arm slightly raised. Meanwhile, Billy was starting to notice a lot of weird background noise. There were a lot of cell phone noises happening, and the phone was ringing, and the TV was on—

                  “Mom.” Fake Teddy appeared at the door of the bathroom, having wrapped a towel around his waist, much to the relief of Billy’s poor heart. If he had to see those glorious chiseled thighs and that—that— _no_ —between them one more time, he thought he might die. Which would be a good death but super inconvenient. And probably mean he would be branded as the worst and most lustful babysitter in the history of ever or something. His name would go down in infamy, and—back on track. The guy from the bathroom was still talking. “Mom, what’s going on, am I seeing things?”

                  Mrs. Altman was crying, one hand pressed to her mouth. “They’re back,” she whispered. “They’re all back. I don’t—I don’t know what happened—the Avengers must have done something, mustn’t they? But it came on the news, and I didn’t know if I believe it, but if Billy’s here—it’s true. It must be.”

                  “Holy shit,” said the blond beauty that Mrs. Altman was talking to as if he really were her son. And there was no sign of the kid Billy knew around the apartment. And somehow the wallpaper had gotten yellow and faded, and the TV was on the wrong side, and that was definitely a new couch, wasn’t it? And, oh shit. Oh shit.

                  “I’m…dead?” he said in a quavering voice.

                  Mrs. Altman wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her sweater. “Oh, honey,” she said. “Oh, honey, no, you’re not. You’re fine. You’re fine. Let’s—let’s get you to a phone, so you can call your mom.”

                  Billy turned around to where…Not Fake Teddy? Real Teddy? was still standing in the doorway of the bathroom and blinked. “Uh,” he said. “You hugged me. Naked.”

                  Teddy’s cheeks went a slow dull red. “I mean, five years ago you _died_ in my _bathroom_ ,” he said. “I opened the door because I thought I heard something, and you literally turned to dust in front of me.”

                  Billy opened his mouth and discovered he didn’t know what to say to that, so he closed it again for a long minute. “I should—I should call my mom,” he said. “I guess—I guess my metro card won’t be good anymore.”

~

                  Thankfully, despite the shrieks and laughter and crying and _cell phone noises_ everywhere, Billy’s mom managed to actually be calm, or at least sound like it on the phone. Her voice was a little thick, but she sounded almost normal. She told him public transportation was pretty crazy right now—no wonder—and asked him if he would be okay staying with the Altmans for the night. “I want to see you so badly, sweetheart,” she told him, “But I think it’s going to be tricky for you to get back until things quiet down.”

                  “Sure,” Billy croaked. “I mean, I was supposed to stay over anyway.”

                  “You were?”

                  Five years. Right. “Yeah, Mrs. Altman was going to be on an overnight trip, so I said I’d stay over with Teddy.”

                  His mom made a soft noise that was almost painful, but she said, steadily enough, “Oh, that’s right. I’d forgotten. Good, then we’ll get you a taxi home in the morning?”

                  “Sounds good, Mom. Thanks.”

                  They talked for a little longer about nothing in particular, and then Billy put the phone down and realized he hadn’t actually asked Mrs. Altman if he could stay. “Um,” he said. “Mrs. Altman? Mom thinks it’ll be better if I come home tomorrow morning, if that’s okay with you?”

                  “Of course, honey. I’ll defrost us a pizza. No pork, right?”

                  “Uh, yeah, thanks.”

                  At least being gone for five years meant plenty of reading material. Teddy had a lot of comic books to offer him, so Billy sat on the couch and read and tried not to think about what was actually happening. Which was kind of difficult when every five or ten minutes Mrs. Altman came in and asked if was sure he didn’t need anything, like a snack or something, and Teddy sat awkwardly on the arm of the couch and pretended to read as well, but every time Billy looked up, he caught the guy looking at him with this sort of guarded, shy, awed look. And he was still really hot, which was weird, because he’d been _eleven_ , like, half an hour ago by Billy’s reckoning, and it was really hard to try to update his responses based on the information that, oh, by the way, Billy, you’ve been _dead for five years_. It felt kind of like _Teddy_ was dead, and Billy had liked that kid.

                  “Stop _looking_ at me like that,” he said, finally, after he’d stopped being able to focus on the latest _Captain America_ for the third time.

                  “Sorry,” Teddy mumbled and looked away.

                  Billy sighed and put down his comic. “Teddy,” he said. “I get this must be pretty weird for you. Believe me, it is pretty weird for me. But it’s not like we were brothers or family or anything? I was just your babysitter. I mean, I guess it must’ve been traumatic for you to watch me die, but I’m not dead! So it’s okay.”

                  Teddy seemed to physically shrink a little. “Yeah—no—I know,” he said. “Sorry.”

                  “Am I missing something?” Billy asked him, still trying to ignore the way his brain kept screaming, _He’s super cute and you know what he looks like naked, and he’s totally your age_.

                  With a groan, Teddy stared up at the ceiling. “Kinda?”

                  “Okay. What am I missing? Is it because I saw you naked, because I’m sorry about that, I guess that is pretty weird, isn’t it, and like, I guess I’m not five years older than you anymore, but it still feels kind of pervy—”

                  “Oh, god, Billy, please shut up.   No. It’s not that. Mostly.” Teddy played with his fingers. “Look, the thing is, right, when I was younger—I really admired you. I thought you were incredibly brave and super smart, and I guess…I sort of wanted to grow up to be like you? And then you _died_. I mean, my mom and I were lucky, we didn’t have a lot of family to begin with, and the two of us were still around, but you—” he ground his teeth together. “I had a _massive_ crush on you, Billy. I thought you were so cool. I know I was just an annoying little kid to you, but you were a lot more to me.”

                  “Oh,” Billy said blankly.

                  “So, yes, it is weird that the first thing you saw when you came back was me, naked, because no time has passed for you, and I’m still just that weird, annoying little kid.”

                  “Um,” said Billy, swinging his feet against the couch. He wasn’t sure of the etiquette here. “I mean, I didn’t think you were _annoying_. You were a cool little kid.”

                  Teddy gave him a somewhat disbelieving smile. “That’s nice of you,” he said stiffly.

                  “What I mean is,” Billy said softly. “You’re right that this is weird? And I guess a lot of stuff is going to be weird for everyone, given—” he waved a hand. “—all of the stuff that’s apparently happened. But since I wasn’t that close to Little You, maybe it’s okay if we get to know each other all over again? I mean, sure, you apparently hero-worshipped me or whatever, but _really_ you’re hero-worshipping a memory of me from five years ago. Real me is not that great. I promise. So, I dunno, if you wanted to try and put that away a little bit, I could try not to think of you as that weird little kid I used to babysit up until, uh…” he checked his watch, “…an hour and fifteen minutes ago, and try to think of you as, like, his much cooler older brother or something.”   He took a deep breath. “What I’m saying is, maybe we could start over? Hi, I’m Billy.”

                  Teddy gave him a bemused smile. “I’d like that,” he said slowly. “I mean, um, hi, I’m Teddy.”

                  “Cool,” said Billy. “Important things you should know about me: I’m super awkward, I’m really gay, I’m a total mess, and I love comic books.”

                  This time he got a chuckle. The way New Teddy’s hair flopped forward into his blue eyes was pretty…wow. Pretty wow. Eloquent, Kaplan. “Well, that’s good to know, Billy. I am also pretty awkward, I love drawing and comic books, and I’m extremely bi.”

                  “Sweet,” Billy said. “Can you show me some of your drawings?”

                  “I would love to,” Teddy told him, standing up, and this time Billy let himself feel a little less weird about ogling his broad shoulders. Everything was probably going to be _super_ weird for a while, he figured, so he should probably take little victories where he found them.


End file.
